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The Museum of Photography

A baroque building which promotes and protects Portuguese photographic heritage above all else.

Formerly the Porto prison.

The Museum of Photography (a.k.a the Portuguese Photography Centre) now occupies the site where Porto prison once stood. Inaugurated here in 1997, in a baroque style building with a trapezium floor, its intention is to protect, improve and promote more permanent exhibitions like the National Photography Collection with its documents of great national interest and the cameras of the photo historian Antonio Pedro Vicente, as well as the seasonal ones. For the more interested, here’s a footnote: Amongst the famous prisoners who were locked up in the old prison that was previously on this site were the Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco and his lover Ana Plácido, who were incarcerated in the jail after being accused of adultery, as well as the dangerous Portuguese criminal Zé do Telhado.Today the museum also has a specialist library, a shop and a free guided tour service throughout the building and the exhibitions.